


Down to the Sea

by LadyZeppelin1111 (QueenBoudica1770)



Category: Led Zeppelin, Music RPF, Real Person Fiction, Rock Music RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Magic, Anal Sex, Ancient History, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Boys Kissing, British, Carmen Plant - Freeform, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Children, Elves, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Gay, Gay Sex, Hand Jobs, Interspecies Relationship(s), LGBTQ Themes, Loneliness, M/M, Magic, Male Slash, Merrh, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Sex, Sexual Tension, Sorcerers, Sorceresses, merman, the sea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:09:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28656999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenBoudica1770/pseuds/LadyZeppelin1111
Summary: Alternative Universe Robert Plant and Jimmy Page a long time ago in prehistoric Britain.James the fisherman  lives alone by the Great River, and makes a wish to the River Goddess.He gets a glimpse of something wondrous and magical.Everything leads back down to the sea.UPDATE: link to illustration at the end of chapter 1.
Relationships: Jimmy Page/Robert Plant
Comments: 74
Kudos: 45





	1. A Strange Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this is an idea that's been tugging the back of my mind. Celts for the win!

James was a fisherman, took his little hide coracle up and down the Tamessos, the Great River of his homelands, at other times his larger, sturdier wooden boat he skirted the coast of Albion with. Not just for fish, but to satisfy his own curiosity. The Sea compelled him, seemed to speak to him in dreamlike moments as his vessel bobbed in the waves of the ocean or the calmer though still deep waters of the Tamessos.

He was a young man, his parents having died a few years prior, leaving him the sole occupant of the family's round drystone house and owner of the boats and tiny patch of crops they once tended. As his ma and da had always done, he left out offerings of food and trinkets for the Sidhe on his doorstep, and near the shoreline for the spirits of the water for good luck and his safety when he sailed. When he really wanted something, his parents had instructed him to toss something of value into the Tamessos and wish for it.

Lately, he wished to not be lonely anymore. Oh, there were settlements of Britons like himself here and there, but they distrusted him, as his parents had cherished solitude and he himself was a loner who played his harp and talked to himself and was a strange spectacle when he visited one of the nearby villages. Today he went down the river's edge and tossed one of the few copper coins he possessed into the watery depths and wished for someone to talk to, a companion. A friend. Someone who understood him. Anyone.

The next day James took the wooden boat out to see the vast waters of the Channel that separated Albion from the Mainland. He threw his nets out on either side of his vessel and sat down to wait. Not long after, he noticed a splash, and then movement just under the surface of the water. The dark shape of a large sea creature circled the boat. Afterwards, it moved away, heading in the direction of farther out to sea. James had stood, watching intently, then the fish must have dived deeper. 

Hmmm. Odd 

Minutes later, a horde of fish disturbed the surface of the waters in a mad, headlong dash toward one of his nets. He pulled up the net to find one of the best hauls he'd ever taken. "Thank you," he called to the strange water animal. A wide fin rose up, slapped the seal's surface as if in acknowledgement, and then was gone. 

In the days and weeks that followed, the strange events repeated themselves, and the young dark-haired fisherman prospered. Perhaps the Gods saw fit to bless him for his good faith, hard work, and generous offerings, he thought. He slowly became aware of a strange sensation he would experience...it was a feeling of not being alone. This day he was dressed in his linen summer tunic and hide trousers against the muggy heat, barefoot, enjoying the cool breeze coming from the Tamessos. James' eyes kept darting to and fro, scanning for who or whatever it was that was watching him and making the hairs on the back of his long, smooth white neck stand on end.

He detected the splash of something large hitting the water, which propelled him to the river's edge. A familiar long black shape darted downriver, back toward where it emptied out to the ocean. The young man took off after it, falling hopelessly behind, yet he followed out off stubborn determination. It was some time later he reached the Mouth, and tired and disappointed, slowed and took note of the lovely view of the late evening sun as it sank. Then something caught the lad's eye as he neared the shore of the sea.

Someone naked was sitting on a rock jutting up not far from the shoreline, staring out at the beautiful scene James was appreciating moments before. Softly, quietly, James approached, and when he got closer he saw it wasn't a person. Well, it was from the waist up. From the waist down, he had a muscular fin curled up under him, if it was a him. The muscular chest, abs and lean, toned arms seemed male to James, but perfectly made, like he was chiseled out of stone. Idly the strange man..fish..whatever ran his fingers through damp golden curls drying under the sun. 

The fisherman stepped on a twig, which caused the strange being to start. His head snapped around, revealing the most beautiful yet masculine face James had ever beheld, large blue eyes widened. The young man was only twenty or so feet from where the creature was perched, and he held his hands out to show he was unarmed. The pair stared at one another a moment, then with a flip of his shiny, metallic blue tail, he slid into the water and was gone.

"Wait!" James cried. "I mean you no harm!" 

Unfortunately, the creature had disappeared.

[the Siren](https://www.deviantart.com/ladyz1111/art/Robert-Siren-866718892)


	2. Captured

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James hardly believes what he'd just saw, so he wants to prove to himself that the creature is real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy has weird ideas on how to befriend a merman.

James stared after the strange being that disappeared under the waves, at surprising speed, for several long moments as night drew close. He returned to his round stone house with its thatched roof and stone enclosure for the goats and chickens. He fed them, had some roasted chicken with bread and cheese for supper, and settled into his rope bed. His mind wouldn't stop working.

Merman. That was a merman he saw. He'd heard tales from merchant sailors about seal-women and fish-people, and one of those legends swam right up almost to his doorstep. Then another thought popped up--was this the mysterious animal driving the fish to his net? He had been able to catch large enough loads to get better furniture, more supplies, better tools to work his garden. He wanted to thank the merman, but how do you tell such a being something like that in a way they could understand? How would he get him to sit still long enough to communicate?

The next morning, he took the wooden boat out again, and the dark shape did its job in herding fish to his nets. He had an extra net he tossed over the shape when it passed close to his vessel. Immediately the water roiled with the struggle of the seabeast; a great fin chopped and flapped. James pulled with all his might, and with a mighty heave he dragged the net, creature and all into the boat. It was a blur of motion, which only served to tighten the net and entangle it further. Movement ceased as a long intake of breath signalled it was now breathing air. 

In the snare was the merman he had spotted the day before, panting in terror. Through the straps the fisher saw an iridescent light blue tail with guidefins, and a man's torso rose from the beautiful tail, golden skin, golden hair, long claws and webbed fingers which grabbed futilely at the net over him. Blue eyes regarded the human with fear and betrayal.

"I'm sorry," the young man found himself trying to assure the creature. "I won't hurt you. Please, I just wanted to see you, talk to you." The accusatory expression of the siren made him feel a bit guilty, but he was determined to see this through. He rowed the boat back to shore, then tied it to the little dock built by his father many years before. He pulled his catch of fish out of the boat and put them in the holding pool in the yard, then pulled the merman onto the shore.

"Master Fish, if I unravel part of that, will you please stay a while?" James asked, unsure if the creature understood him. He unfurled the net down to the merman's waist, and both gazed at one another. Up close, the human saw how striking the merman's eyes were. They were huge in his angular face, and such a blue as no human ever had, with two sets of eyelids. He struggled with the constriction around his tail, and realised that the man wasn't freeing him totally yet, then looked up at James. He moved his mouth, then a hoarse croak emerged from his throat. "Free me."

"So you do understand me," the man said, happy at the revelation. "I will let you go, but I wanted to speak with you."

"Speak," the merman rumbled, the voice rough still but improving. "Why you...eh..do this? I help man. Man leaves nice gifts, plays lovely sounds with stringed piece of wood. I help man with the fish, watch over man. Then man catches me like I am lowly fish!"

James was taken aback at the force of the righteous indignation. "I--I'm sorry. I didn't understand what I was doing to you. I merely wanted to thank you for your help. I'll pull the rest off you, but will you stay a while?"

"Have funny way...of making request," the creature huffed. His voice was now clear and vibrant, not deep, but strong. "If you take this thing off, I will speak with you. For a short while."

James moved forward, and began to pull at the net again. The merman cried out, causing the human to wonder if he had hurt him, when he saw the tail flake and fall away, and the creature rose up as a man. The young man stepped back in surprise while the now-legged blond man kicked the rest of the net off. He screamed at his captor, snatched him up with an ease and speed that was terrifying, threw him against the dock-post. He yelled in pain, which seemed to halt the attack once the siren realised the human was hurting. James sprawled against the post as he witnessed the merman wobble unsteadily to the water and wade in. He began to move his arms, and after a few moments his glorious, sparkling tail was back, appeared out of the breaking waves a moment before it propelled him away from the distressing land.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone likey? Comments and kudos welcome.


	3. Sing a Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James is sorry about the way he tried to capture the strange creature that's swam into his life. 
> 
> So what does he do? He plays a song, dammit! Turns out, that's a surefire merman magnet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The merman receives his name from James, or at least a pronouncable one, haha.
> 
> The meeting of two very different worlds.

Slowly, the fisherman got to his feet. He found his right arm and shoulder was in immense pain, causing him to hold it close to his body at an odd angle. He gazed sadly at the expanse of ocean, closed his eyes. Breathed the sea air. The whisperings of the sea came to him again, only now instead of calming or enticing him, it held the tones of rebuke and chiding. "Forgive me," he spoke to the waves. "I wronged you, man of the sea."

The following day, James awoke to discover his arm hurt even more, and worse still was his guilty conscience. He did a quick spell that his mother taught him for health and a clear mind, grabbed the little, worn harp he was fond of, and went to the banks of the Tamessos. He seated himself, cradled the instrument against his body with his injured arm, and plucked some strings. He adjusted to this new, mostly one-handed mode of playing, but the bright, lilting tones bubbled forth under his skilled fingers. The melody carried him, far away from pain and trouble and want, as it sometimes did when he was caught up. He closed his green eyes and started humming. He was no singer, yet the soft, soothing sound of his humming rose and fell wonderfully with his improvised song.

After some time the song spent itself. He opened his eyes to find the beautiful merman beside him, long legs gathered beneath him, naked as a newborn and with a similarly innocent and curious expression on his face. James smiled tentatively. "You came back."

The blond man smiled back. "Yes. I am...what is word? Curious. Want know more."

"I am too," James responded. He shifted to better look at the newcomer, then winced.

The merman's face fell. "I hurt you. Not mean to."

"I kinda hurt you first, by trying to keep you against your will."

"Here, help. I help," the blond insisted, moving to crouch behind the young man. James groaned in pain when the creature took hold of his arm, felt all up and down it, felt his shoulder. Suddenly, he jerked on the arm hard, and the human cried out at the sharp pain, but then the arm settled into place, the discomfort replaced by relief. He found he could move his arm with only some soreness.

"You, you fixed my arm," the fisher marvelled.

"Now we am even," the creature nodded solemnly as he plopped down beside James. "What's you called, catcher-of-fish?"

"My name is James. What's yours?"

The merman uttered a string of noises that the human was at a loss to understand, and shook his head in puzzlement. The siren tried again to voice a shortened form, his childhood nickname, but the human could make little sense of it.

"It sounds like 'Rrrro-nnnnnuhh-rrrohhh' but that's not right," the young man said. "How about I call you Robert? Would that suffice?"

"Robert is fine. It sounds nice," the merman beamed at the fisherman.

"Robert, I want to apologize for treating you the way I did, after you helping me and all. I was impatient and careless."

"I accept. I sorry for injuring you. I forget how strong I be on land, is not like the water."

"Accepted. You're talking about the resistance? Having to move against the force of the water? Interesting!"

"Farther down, it gets harder to move and swim. How do you make those boats? And the net? Is so strange to me!"

"It's been passed down from my father and his father. I can show you how I take apart the coracle for storage, and put it back together again, if you like sometime."

"Will you make the sounds with the wooden thing again?" Robert asked, his flawless face earnest. "I so enjoy it."

"Yes, I can," he answered, and started up another song. He let the notes swell and rise and fall, then nearly dropped the harp when a powerful tenor joined in. He kept playing but, startled, looked over at his companion to find him bursting with song, and that it was an old bard's song, 'My Love Came from the Sea.' What James was playing wasn't the traditional accompaniment to that tune, but Robert intuitively adapted the lyrics to the melody, and made it work.

It was incredible; the merman's voice reached heights that James had only heard women bards reach previously, but with more power than any human voice could muster. When it ended, the fisherman stared at Robert, dumbfounded.

"That was lovely," the merman remarked. "I hear that at..what is they..inns? Rest-stops? Humans gather there and make the joyful noises, like you, James. But I like your sounds better."

"Music," James corrected him. "That was a lovely song you sang."

"Song. Sang," Robert repeated. "I like your musics. Eh. Song. Songs."

"Your singing, I've never heard anything like it," praised the human. "It was powerful, moving. How did you learn to do that?"

Robert shrugged, a starkly human gesture for such a strange creature. "I just do. I watch humans, sometimes on legs, sometimes from the water. Have for a while now. Like watching you. James. Pretty James." Without further ado, he got to his feet amid James looking shocked at being called pretty by a creature of the sea.

"Me? You're beautiful. Stunning," he blushed at the merman's nakedness as he too got to his feet. Robert was all lean muscles and smooth skin, with bouncy, curly golden curls to the middle of his back. He couldn't believe he called him beautiful, what if that was a problem among his kind? James knew of shamans and druids that were attracted to the same sex, but it wasn't overly common in this area.

Robert, however, seemed untroubled as he smiled at James. "Must go home," he announced, and stepped into the river.

"Oh," the human was disappointed. "I wanted to show you my home."

"Maybe another time," the merman said as he sank into the water. It shimmered, and his lovely tail emerged from the surface, flapped a few times. 

"Will you visit me again?"

"Of course. But only if."

"Only if what?"

"You promise no tricks, no catching me like beast."

"I promise. I won't do that again, Robert."

"Is good, then." Robert nodded to himself, and swam downriver, to the sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How am I doing? I'm really loving merman Robert, just can't help myself.
> 
> Loves, hugs, comments always welcome!


	4. Surprise Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James received a visit from his strange new friend.
> 
> I also learned more than I expected about cetacean anatomy lol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Learning from one another. 
> 
> Also, mythical creature physiology ahead.

The fisherman decided, a few days later, to bathe just beyond the banks of the Tamessos, just out of reach of the current. He'd done this countless times, seeing as how there were no people that close by to worry about. But then, he wasn't friends with a merman before. He was soaping himself up when a splash made him glance up to see Robert's head bobbing close by. "Bleeding hells!" James swore, and sank down into the water for modesty's sake.

"You removed your coverings," the merman observed. "Whyfore?"

"I was taking a bath. Getting clean."

"You wet now. Look more like Seapeople. I like."

"Ah, humans are used to doing this without an audience."

"Bad for me to look? I like watching you," Robert said in genuine confusion. "You in water with me, like I go in land with you."

"Have you...watched me before?" James asked, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"Yes," Robert swam toward the human quicker than he could get away. "What I do wrong?" He wondered at the young man floundering away from him.

"I just...I need to get my clothes on."

"If that make you feel better. I come onto bank over there."

"It would."

"Thought we were friends," huffed the merman, who pulled himself onto the ground facing away from James. "You put net over me like I am coldscales, you know."

"I said I was sorry," the human responded as he laced his breeches up. He then pulled a clean tunic over his head and seated himself beside the merman, whose tail glittered in the sunlight. At the smooth muscular skin and tail configuration, he was reminded more of a dolphin or whale rather than a standard fish. "I thought you had scales...you have smooth hide."

"Am not a coldscales," Robert repeated. "Am like the Singers."

"The Singers?"

"You call them whales. They sing beautiful songs to each other, and sometimes they speak to us."

"Incredible! But, all the things that swim are fish, aren't they?" 

"No! You don't know that whales and dolphins breathe air and are warm like you?" Robert was flabbergasted at something so obvious to him was unknown to the human. He flopped his tail and spread his fins in agitation.

"I didn't know," James advised him. "Can I touch your fin?"

"Only if."

"Only if what this time?"

"Only if you let me touch you, James."

The man nodded and Robert raised his fin and allowed James to run his fingertips along the rough skin. The hide was thick yet he could feel the strong muscles used to propel himself in the water underneath. His gaze traveled upwards, past lean torso and wide shoulders to the smiling face with sharp teeth and strange, large eyes. Robert blinked his eyelids and then the second set of nictating membranes. "Ah," swallowed the man at the question tugging at him. "One thing I wanted to make sure of, um, you are male, aren't you? I wouldn't want to make a terrible mistake on how to refer to you."

"Yes, am like you, male," the merman affirmed. "You saw me with legs, didn't you?"

"I was trying not to look," the young man flushed.

"Well, is here," he explained, and a slit a little ways below the belly button opened.

"Oh, no no, you don't have to--" James began, then was greeted with the sight of Robert's member that emerged from the slit, which was bluish-whitish, large, and curved upwards. "Oh, that's..interesting. Um. You can...put it away, now." The young man's face was now bright red. He hoped the thoughts of what he wanted to do to the merman wasn't plain in his expression, even though he'd not expressed any sexual interest in anyone male or female before. 

It retracted easily back into the slit, which closed. It was there to protect the privates from cold water and to make the merman more streamlined for swimming. "I should be dry enough to change soon," he remarked. He turned to the fisherman who was trying to compose himself, scooted closer to him. He raised a large hand with webbed fingers and claws, and gently smoothed James' black, damp hair back, feeling of the wavy strands. "Hair so soft," Robert spoke softly. "Mine is not so soft." He touched the cheek of his companion, his shoulder, his hand, marveled at the softness.

Both had their hands buried in one another's hair, laughing, when Robert winced. James looked down and watched as the tail split, flaked, and slid off of two long, lean legs. Instinctively, the human laid his hand on a supple thigh in wonder. "How do you do that?" The process left pieces of fin that disintegrated when James touched it.

"Not know. It just happens when I get dry enough," was the honest answer. "Legends say my people found better places to swim and new things by walking across lands. We don't do that so much anymore."

"Why not?"

"Is dangerous," the merman replied. "Cause problems. Many of my kind have lost the ability to do it."

"You're probably right, I hardly trust other humans, and I am one." Aware of his hand on the merman's leg, he snatched it away and stood. "I have some clothes you could wear at my house, if you would like to come over."

"Yes! Want to see," Robert beamed, those white, sharp teeth shining in his wide mouth, and followed the fisher happily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh how I'd love for siren Robert to follow me home.
> 
> How's it sounding? Comments welcome. Love you guys!


	5. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert gets to check out a people house, and more unexpected company drops by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robert is magic and sex lol.

Robert was fascinated with the holding pool James had dug in his yard, which had extra from his last catch still swimming around. James laughed and eventually pulled him to the front door. Once inside, the merman's inhumanly large eyes grew wider at the interior. It was a fairly large house, made up of perfectly fitted, drystone blocks set together without mortar by his grandfather's father many years before.

The living room was the first room to be entered, followed by the dining area, kitchen, two bedrooms, a utility room, then storage in the back. Robert smiled and touched any interesting object within sight, gushed like a child. "Love these," he held up figurines of boats and fish that James had either made or collected over the years. The young man grinned at the sea creature's antics, as he had to actually put his head in the oven to see how it worked and tried talking to the fluffy hen as she sat bawk-bawking on the kitchen windowsill.

Robert was still poking the chicken and stroking her soft feathers when James reappeared with clothes. "Here," the fisher spoke. "Try these on."

The siren fumbled with the clothes a moment before pulling up the trousers and fastening them. At his friend's expression of surprise, he explained that he had worn clothes before.

"You have? So you have directly interacted with humans before." 

"Aye. I trade with man in village close by. He likes the shells and stones I find for him, and gives me iron knives and information."

"Really? Who is it?"

"The bear man. He wears the bear's teeth."

"Bjorn?" James asked as Robert slipped the shirt over his head. "That ruffian?"

"Ruffian?"

"Yes, he thinks he's a raider but he just likes to drink and start trouble."

"He tells me he is farmer. Grows plant food."

"Oh, he would," snorted James, shaking his head. "You might wanna steer clear of him in towns."

"Ruffian is bad? But Bjorn nice to me. Like you nice to me. Only he not as pretty," Robert smiled and reached out, touched his companion's face. 

"I am not pretty," James said, trying to be firm, but his belly did flips at the sensation of those powerful hands gently touching him. "If you must, say I am handsome."

"No," the merman disagreed. "You prettier than human females. Pretty as our women of the sea."

Some sort of calming, erotic aura wrapped itself around the young man, who had half-closed his eyes, warm, cushioned in its grip. In the dangerous yet tender hands of this creature of the sea…

"What's that thing?" Yelped Robert, staring at something out the window.

Snapping back to reality, James spotted one of the goats he allowed to wander free today. "That's a goat."

"You eat goat?"

"Well, sometimes."

"What an ugly animal. I love it!" Robert retracted his hands from James' person and dashed outside. "Oh, it stinks, too! How funny! Listen to noise the hideous thing makes! Baaaa! Baaaa!" He mimicked.

Despite sporting half a hard-on, James burst out laughing. He joined the merman outside when he calmed a bit and asked his guest where he learned to speak his language.

"Bjorn help. But first I meet a female of your kind. Woman. Yes. Marra. She teach me speak."

"Does she live close?"

"Much farther west along shoreline," he answered, rubbing the goat's head with relish. "First learn to wear coverings there. Why you put those on? Is it to protect your parts? Dangerous having them out like that."

James blushed but replied, "That's part of it, but to keep warm, and for politeness."

"Polite to look at some parts of you but not others. I don't understand." Robert ceased petting the goat to cluck at the chickens. "I like these bawk-bawk things. So pretty!" he gushed, but he perfectly approximated the sound of the clucking hens, just like he sounded just like a goat.

"That's amazing. You can sound like anything you want," the young man praised. 

"Guess ams gifts seapeople have I didn't know about." Suddenly Robert cocked his head, nostrils flared. "Somebody coming close," he announced. 

Oh, shit, James thought. How would he explain Robert and his strange behaviour? After a moment, two people emerged from the brush, and one hailed them.

"Hey there, R! So you've met the Hermit, eh!" The larger of the two called.

When they drew closer, James saw it was Bjorn, with a young man he vaguely recognised as having seen him before. "I been looking for you, mate. Folks in town said you'd been walking the beaches toward this way."

"Whyfore you look for me?"

Bjorn guffawed and elbowed his fellow traveler. "Told ya he spoke funny! That's just his way, innit, R? I was looking for you 'cause we need more shells and those pretty bracelets you trade. Johann here is looking to sell some at the big market in Londinium, and I wanted to have a pretty necklace made out of shells for Trisha."

"I have some hidden already," Robert replied. "But I can get more."

"Sorry, how rude of me!" Bjorn went on. He was a bear of a man, long dark brown hair and beard, wearing a necklace of bear teeth. The story goes he killed a young male bear with a flint knife as a teen, which was why Robert referred to him as the Bear Man. "Mates, I am Bjorn and this is Johann, chief--what is it?--financier of the Mayor. Basically, he sniffs out money and opportunities."

"Pleasure to meet you," the smaller, sandy-haired and well-dressed traveler spoke. "Hope we weren't intruding."

"No, I was just showing Robert here around. James Fisher," he introduced himself.

"Robert. Hey, I like it," Bjorn rumbled. "Guess you couldn't pronounce his name either, huh? I just been calling him R."

"Hey, we left our horses by the river, so we won't bother you long," Johann said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well looks like the gangs all here! Lol.


	6. Gods of the Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James has visitors and thoughts turn to watery deities. Once alone again, Robert has some things he wants to do to James.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy sheeeeet I want merman sex powers lol.

The four unlikely new friends were soon laughing around James' dining table, helped by Bjorn's flask of usquebaugh, which they all took healthy pulls from.

"So," the slender and reserved Johann had gotten enough (liquid) nerve to ask. "I trust Bjorn here and he apparently trusts me. And since you've invited him into your home, I'm just going to ask: what's this that Bjorn says about Robert being a..merman? What's he on about?"

Robert looked up from his drink with the most comically guilty face one could muster, but didn't speak. James, on the other hand, burst out in a hearty guffaw that neither of the blokes there had ever heard come out of the reserved young man. "Oh, he is. I foolishly caught him in my net to be sure I wasn't loony!"

"You? Caught me boy Robert in a fishing net?" Sputtered Bjorn, who followed with peals of laughter as well. "Mister 'I'm too pretty for the world, lookit meeee' fellow? I woulda love to have seen that!"

"Not funny," the merman sniffed. "Someone put net over you, see how it feels."

"I'm sorry, my friend," James sobered somewhat. "It was kinda serious, as he dislocated my shoulder getting free."

"He's got the strength of a hero-god," the larger man agreed.

"Like Manannan Mac Lir," Johann observed, before taking another swig of his whiskey. "Maybe his people come from him."

"The god of the sea?" Asked James thoughtfully. "I never thought of it, but it could be."

"Who is Manannan?" the sea creature asked.

"God of the oceans, a warrior and protector of those that sail the seas," the sandy-haired merchant replied. "Someone we like to invoke for good luck before a long trip."

"He travels over the waves with his ship Wavesweeper, and he guards the doorway to the Otherworld," added Bjorn. "Who do you worship, then?"

Robert answered with a phrase that sounded like "Lirralirra-tawnit-gulluh-mir-yannash," with clicks and more at the end that none of the humans could approximate. Robert sighed and spoke, "Call her Lirra, Mother of the Waters. She made all things that swim and us Seapeople. She is beautiful, draped in shells and pearls and seaweed, and strong, causing whirlpools and storms and volcanoes and making lands rise, and wise, she give my people the ability to change and go on land and ability to make weapons and tools and find safe spaces in the great deep."

"That was beautiful, Robert of the Waves," Johann spoke solemnly into the stunned silence. "You should be a bard."

"You haven't even heard him sing. He's amazing," James found his voice.

Bjorn broke the awkwardness by declaring they should get back to their horses, and that he would meet Robert on the beach in two days to get more shells. "It's farewell then, Jimmy!" The bear man clapped the smaller one on the back. "You're welcome to me homestead anytime, you know."

"Thank you. You're welcome to drop by," James responded.

"See you around, Jim," the financier said warmly.

"Gods be with you," James called to them as they departed.

After the visitors were out of sight, Robert turned to his companion. "You say I'm amazing," he said, those huge eyes pools of warmth in his unlined face. "You amazing."

"How am I amazing? There's nothing special--"

"You call me, and I came. I alone, no parents, no family. Lonely. You called, and I came. You have the magic." Robert pulled the bag that hung around his neck like some sort of charm and opened it. He pulled out the coin and other gifts the fisher had thrown into the Great River to accompany his prayers. 

"That was for Tamessa to grant me my wishes," James said in surprise once he spotted the items in the merman's large hand. "You. You answered."

"Yes." Robert replaced the items back in the pouch, moved to his host, pulled him into his arms.

"What are you…"

"Stop talk. Want to feel you," murmured Robert as he nuzzled the surprised young man.

James shivered as the merman kissed his jawline, his throat, he felt the fleeting touch of those sharp teeth as they skimmed along his skin. He waited in anticipation; he knew the merfolk were primarily carnivores, he could tear his throat out so easily if he wished. Instead, he felt Robert slide his hand under his tunic to run fingertips over his belly. Again the young man was swathed in a cocoon of desire, of want. It had to be some power or ability of his kind, but he was beginning to not even care.

When Robert pulled back to gaze at James, the fisherman leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It caught the merman off-guard, but he returned the kiss eagerly. "Want you. Need you."

James stepped back, then pulled the taller man back to his bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos, comments, discussion and donuts always welcome!
> 
> Methinks some shenanigans is forthcoming hahaha.


	7. The Love and the Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pair share James' bed and enjoy each other.
> 
> Merpeople have all sorts of unexpected abilities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> M/M anal sex.
> 
> Some surprising revelations about James Fisher's family.

If I had met her wearing the sweater  
I would feel better than I do today  
She would deplore me  
And just stand there in the door

Would come out to play with me  
Then I would show you the ways of the sea  
Have you got time for me love?  
Me walk out and follow me

Followed the daughter, looked into the water  
Walked out the water and I caught hold of her hand  
Pulling me under my ears filled with thunder

Like a peal of bells falling out of the sky  
So I begin to feel that life is fine, fine  
The thing was in the light, ooh, ooh, oh

To see  
What I mean

If I had met her wearing the sweater  
I would feel better than I do today  
Ignore me, stand in the doorway

Come out to play with me  
Then I will show you the ways of the sea  
Follow me I will show you the ways of the sea

Walk out and follow me  
The edge of the water with me to the sea*

When they reached the bedroom, James jumped into the long arms of Robert, kissed him, ran his tongue carefully over the sharp teeth. They were like this for a while, pressed together, kissing and touching. Eventually they shed their clothes, with the fisherman laid out on his bed. He gestured for the merman to join him. He did, seeming a bit unsure about the stability of the bed, but slid in to nestle against his new lover. James finally allowed himself to look at Robert's whole body, and it was perfect--lean, long arms and legs, wide shoulders, broad chest, long, muscled torso, and a well-endowed manhood.

He felt a little self-conscious, his body tall but gangly. Hauling in nets of fish and maintaining the homestead made him toned, but he was thin and wiry, his face and arms browned by the sun, the rest of him smooth and porcelain. He didn't realise his bright yet rare smile had captivated the merman, caught him more securely than his net ever could. The fisherman's soft voice, the battered harp he played so masterfully, his beautiful face, had drawn Robert to him.

They embraced, kissed some more, began to grind against one another. "Not done this with man before," Robert admitted when they paused.

"I uh, haven't either," James confessed as well. He began to stroke Robert's massive cock, eliciting a low groan from the blond. "I don't know if I feel safe with those teeth on my...parts," he chuckled.

Despite the pleasurable sensation of being stroked by his companion, Robert laughed. "Maybe not try that...unnnh...yet. I want you in me. Put it in me."

Well, it seems despite his imperfect use of the fisher's language, he wasn't shy about telling what he wants. "Are you sure?"

"Am sure. Fuck me, James."

He needed no more goading. He didn't want to hurt Robert, and for lack of anything else to use as lube he fetched some butter from the pantry and used that. Once he had his dick slathered up, he approached the merman who was on all fours, awaiting James. The human carefully worked himself into Robert, and slid into him all the way, and paused. "Guh," Robert moaned in a bit of pleasure and pain when James pushed into his entrance. James pulled out halfway, then slowly thrusted in the hilt again. He was tight, so tight and warm and wanton and beautiful, it didn't take long before he was slamming into Robert hard and fast. 

James gripped one slender hip with one hand to help him penetrate, and with the other he grasped the merman's member and began stroking again. "Oh, James, like that. Just like that."

"You feel so good, love," moaned James, who felt his climax approaching.

Jams felt the body under him shudder, followed by Robert crying out and shooting his load, emptying his balls onto his belly, James' hand, and the bedsheets. "Oh! Fuck!" The human cried out in surprise, and with a few more deep thrusts filled Robert with his spunk.

Both collapsed in the bed. James wrapped his arms around the hot, sweaty body of his new lover. Their breaths calmed at last, and Robert rolled over to face James. "That was so nice. Make me feel so good." He smiled innocently into the young human's face.

"Me, too," James agreed. "Please stay with me."

"I stay for two more days."

"You won't stay longer?" He couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice.

"Must return to sea. Lirra is my mother, I get sick if stay on land too long. Weak. Have to go back to the Mother. I come back to you, though. Always come back to you."

James stared into those unhuman eyes, saw affection and warmth, but like the sea, the depths there held more than was forthcoming. He nodded and snuggled into the muscular body of the merman.

Early that morning, the blond woke to James playing a soulful tune on the harp as he was sitting in bed beside him. "Such nice sounds," the sea creature remarked. "It had magic. The harp. So do you."

"I'm a fisherman, and that's all."

"I wonder," Robert spoke, almost to himself. "May I touch?"

"Sure," James handed the instrument to Robert, who had sat up too. Robert held it the way he'd observed James, and softly plucked a string. A clear, bright sound rang out. He stroked the wooden base of the harp, ran his fingertips along the top.

"Your father made and played this. Feel it. Feel him."

"That belonged to a druid that stayed with my parents before I was born. He was called away to try to stop a war between two kingdoms, but never returned."

"Man who made you with your mother made and played this," the merman insisted. "Not man who raise you."

"What are you saying?" Cried James. "That my father was shamed by his wife and guest? That my mother betrayed my father??"

Sensing the anger building in his companion, Robert shook his head, the yellow curls bouncing. "I sense things from objects that are used a lot, especially by someone with magic. I see them, all three. They all love each other. They were all joined, all mated. Other people not like, not accept," he struggled to explain. "They live alone out here to love each other, much love. Then your father have to go away, but your mother was carrying you. Sad. So sad."

James stared at his bedmate in shock and rage."Give that back!" He snatched the harp from a surprised Robert. "How did--how can you…" he gasped, tears coming to his green eyes. "You lie! Filthy lies! How can you say such things about my parents!"

"I no lie! You not know your parents had such love, such happy? They did! I no lie! A seapeople word is their bond!"

"If it's true--then my birth father could be out there, somewhere," he wept at the implications of this information.

"I felt the lonely, the sadness from you, from gifts you throw in the River, by touching them. Is one reason why I started watching you."

"This must be some more of merpeople magic. Excuse me, I'm not well, I'm going to get some fresh air."

"I not mean to upset you," Robert called to James as he threw on a robe and left the bedroom.

[Robert](https://queenboudica76.tumblr.com/post/641237393623678976/chapter-7-of-my-fan-fic-down-to-the-sea-is-up)

*Sweater by Terry Reid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy! That was a surprise! 
> 
> Love, kudos, comments, suggestions welcome.


	8. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert and James enjoy some time together, but then a newcomer destroys the mood...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet up with Bjorn and Johann, but someone who knows about merpeople has followed them.

The sea creature found the human standing, head down, staring at the fish in the holding tank in his yard, how their scales glimmered in the early sun. "I should have kept my stupid mouth shut," he spoke softly. "I not know how this hurt you."

James glanced at his companion, to find him shirtless but clad in the trousers he'd given him. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," he responded. "You couldn't have known how ignorant I am of my own origins." The young man hugged himself, which brought the merman close. Robert slid his long arms around James, who nestled against the merman's rangy frame.

"I go search for more shells today for Bjorn and Johann," Robert announced after a few minutes. "You want come with?"

"Sure!" The other answered quickly. "Let me get dressed and get some food in me."

Later...  
The young man noticed how the merman's speech was improving, and as they made their way to the beach they worked on some phrases. "I did not know," Robert repeated. "I didn't know. Didn't."

James smiled in encouragement at him. "Robert."

"You want talk..you want to talk," the blond corrected himself. "You want to talk about us mating."

"Is that--is that what your folk call it? Are we, ah, joined?"

"Not have ceremony," Robert replied as they reached the shoreline. "We not, didn't pledge ourselves." He turned to the human, and smiled his lopsided grin at him. "Love must be, and must be declared to one another. Not quite yet, but soon. Yes. Soon."

Irritated, James snapped, "So merpeople can predict the future too? What else can you do? Fly?" How dare the merman profess to know how he feels or will feel even before he himself does?

Robert gathered some shells for his satchel, one of the few things the merfolk carried or wore on their bodies. He was still shirtless, preferring to wear as few clothes as possible. "Why angry with me? No, seapeople can't tell the future or fly. I do not like when you speak like that."

James sighed in chagrin. "I guess your kind don't have sarcasm. I'm not mad at you, Robert. I'm sorry."

"We brought together by the gods. That all I need to know."

Must be nice, James thought, to never worry about anything.

"We eat chicken today? Thought you just eat eggs," Robert asked while watching his companion pluck one of the chickens. They had spent the day collecting shells and enjoying one another's company, then James decided they would have a nice supper involving roasted chicken and vegetables.

Smiling his sharp-toothed grin, Robert tucked into the meal with gusto. James smiled his own dazzling smile back, enjoying having someone to sit across his little table from him. "Did your friend you first met, the lady, did she not cook for you?"

"A few times," he answered, tearing the tender meat from the bones of the fowl with discomforting ease with his pointed teeth. "I usually saw her by the water, away from her house."

At his more somber expression, James asked gently, "Did you part on bad terms?"

Robert nodded, the golden curls bouncing with the movement.

"I'm sorry. What happened?"

"Marra had a mate, I didn't know. Didn't understand about land folk yet."

"He was angry that you're a merman?"

Robert swallowed and a flush rose to his cheeks.

"Oh..oh, no, you had a married woman?"

"I didn't know at first!" He said in his defense. "He pierced me many times with a knife and drove me away."

"He--he stabbed you?" James was incredulous.

"Aye, see," he showed marks in his side and arms, the scars of the wounds he received. "But I left, while Marra cried for us to stop."

"You could've killed him."

"He surprised me, and I was afraid, James."

"I know how strong you are. You could've killed him easily in defending yourself. Why didn't you?"

"She-she love him. She like me, no love me. Ah. She didn't love me. I couldn't hurt her like that."

"You are a walking disaster," the human shook his head. "I suppose you fall in love with a human each week, then." His face reflected the insecurity and disappointment he was feeling. 

"No, James. No. I did not love her, but she was kind to me, and I eased her loneliness when her hunter mate was gone."

Later on, after night fell, the pair lay together in one another's arms. James had been fucked hard, well, and good by the merman, and he was exhausted and satisfied. He was amazed at this new situation he found himself in, and sad whenever he thought about Robert returning to his home, the Ocean.

The next day, they went down to the spot Bjorn and the merman usually met up to trade, to find the bear warrior there with the trader Johann with him. 

"Well met again there, lads," boomed Bjorn, hugging Robert and James. "Let's see what we have." 

"Who do you have with you?" Wondered James, as it appeared someone had followed Bjorn and Johann.

"Why, nobody," the sandy-haired merchant replied with surprise. They all watched as the figure strode purposefully toward them all, reddish-brown hair falling past his shoulders, dressed like a sellsword with light, leather armour and a sword at his waist. "Oh I've seen him before. Tirrell is his name, I think," Johann went on. "He's followed us for some reason."

When he reached them, Robert immediately went into a defensive position, baring his fangs.

The stranger did the same, his wide mouth sporting pointy teeth. 

"Holy hell!," exclaimed the bear warrior. "He's one o' them, too!"

"Robert?" asked the fisher. "Why are you--"

But then there was an explosion of movement as the newcomer lunged at Robert, and they were soon tumbling on the ground amid hisses and strangled roars. Just as quickly, the mermen rolled away from one another, facing each other, both crouched and on guard.

"Rhooooh," spat Tirrell, his voice low and powerful, but musical like Robert's. "I thought it might be you." In the meantime Bjorn and James had wedged themselves in between the two sea creatures. 

"Tirrrhell," Robert seemed to swallow the consonants. "What means this? You think to challenge me?" Robert was much taller than his attacker, with longer arms and legs, but Tirrell had muscled arms and broad shoulders, with hands that gripped like a vice and a rolling baritone that boomed like a clap of thunder as he called down insults in their native tongue.

"You know him?" James questioned.

"Not met him before," the blond merman responded, never taking his bright eyes off the other merman. "Know of him, though. His mother challenged my mother for leadership of clan and lost, then used bad magic against my family. They got themselves cursed and banished."

"No other clans would take my mother or her brothers in! They starved and wandered and ended up on land!"

"She must have found a clan for her to have gotten you," Robert countered. "I heard about you and her trying to come back to the clans but killing Seafolk without honour."

"She was raped by some human pirate, a piece of shit that was a drunkard! I only half Seafolk! I am tainted, because of your filthy self-righteous family!" He knocked Bjorn and James aside like they were ragdolls and wrapped his hands around Robert's skinny throat.

They struggled, with Robert finally kicking Tirrell's legs out from under him. He straddled the shorter merman and pelted his face and chest with his fists, then Tirrell rolled them until he was on top, then they flipped themselves into the water coming in from the tide. Both screamed as they fought while changing, the rip of fabric and their own flesh added to the screaming and hissing coming from the both of them.

The shocked humans saw them now beating at one another with their powerful tails, in between slashing at each other with their claws. 

"C'mon, chaps!" Entreated Bjorn who jumped into the water. "I'll get Robert, you two get the other one!"

Bjorn manhandled a flipping, spitting Robert back onto the beach while Johann and James pulled an unbelievably solid and heavy Tirrell onto the land. During the process, when they almost lost hold of the angry merman, the fisher uttered a holding spell on Tirrell, who stared at him, his bright, gold-green eyes wide as they observed James. "Druid, you are," he murmured at the raven-haired young man. The humans dumped him unceremoniously onto the ground, panting and heaving from their efforts.

"He likes you," the auburn haired merman went on. "I can see why. You are beauty and lust and magic."

"Oh and he's mine, outlaw!" Robert yelled from behind Bjorn's legs. "You and your witch mother took away my family, but you won't have him!"

"Oh we'll see, prettyboy. We'll see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Wonder who Tirrell could be based on. Hmmm...
> 
> Love you guys! Kudos, comments, suggestions, pics of Robert's ass welcome!


	9. Merpeople fight!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone else joins the party, and then James disappears.
> 
> Is he still alive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sea witches and mersorcerors and harpoons, oh my!

A slender, small spear suddenly lodged itself in the ground near Bjorn's leg. "The hells?" he cried, scanning the environment for who threw it.

A screaming figure burst from the brush, another harpoon in hand, and the group saw it was a red-headed woman clad only in a wrapped skirt and familiar satchel. "Witch, huh?" she directed at Robert. "I'll see you and your line dead yet, whelp."

"Lilyana, you and your bastard will die. All the Seapeople will hunt you," Robert vowed.

She rushed them and Bjorn intercepted, surprised her with his strength as he tore the harpoon from her grip. He immediately lunged at her with it, but she was too quick for him, she pivoted and dove onto the still prone and changed Robert and they rolled in the dirt hitting and grappling each other. The bear warrior grabbed at Lilyana to pull her off when he heard James screaming. He glanced over to see Tirrell clutching a kicking and yelling James with one clawed hand and pulling himself toward the ocean with the other while Johann grasped at his tail. "Stop him, Jonesy!" he bellowed just as the merchant pulled his only weapon (as he was no warrior), a dagger, and plunged it into the shiny bronze-coloured tail of the merman. 

Tirrell roared and whipped his fin savagely, dislodging the weapon amid a spattering of blood and batting Johann good, knocking him over. "Bleeding hells," he cursed, and dragged James with him to the sea. Johann got to his feet to give chase but he was too late--Tirrell, though wounded, had taken the fisher into the water with him, and was gone.

"No! No, don't let him go!" Shouted Robert as he fought Tirrell's mother. He had wrapped his sinuous tail around her legs so she couldn't get up, and was close to tearing her throat out with his fangs when he felt something pierce him just below the collarbone. He looked down to see one of those delicate but vicious harpoons embedded in him.

"Watery bitch!" Cried Bjorn, and stuck her with her own spear he still had in hand, buried it into her back. She gasped, and as Robert had relaxed his hold on her with his fin, she rolled away, harpoon still in her, and ran headfirst into the surf. Seconds later a red-gold tail slapped the water, trailing red from her blood, but she disappeared.

"Here now, let's look at you, then," coaxed the brown-haired man at the whimpering, bleeding merman. Johann joined them, kneeling on the other side of Robert.

"Pull that horrid thing out of him," insisted the smaller man.

"Can't, the way the point is made, we'll have to cut it out."

Jonesy made a face but helped get the merman to a sitting position. "By Tamessa, merpeople are heavy."

"Like whales, they are," agreed the other human. "I've got a clean knife, so I'm gonna make a cut here, and here, and you'll need to yank it out, and slap these bandages on it so he won't bleed out. Got it?"

The merchant nodded his head while looking queasy, but he didn't falter. Once Bjorn had made a big enough exit in the squirming merman, Johann removed the weapon and staunched the bleeding.

"He took James, didn't he?" Robert asked after a while.

"Yes," Johann answered sadly. "I struck him with my dagger, but he still got away."

Robert's tail shimmered, cracked and fell away, and he stood up as a man. "Thank you, Bjorn and Johann. Now must figure how to get James back. And how to kill two outlaws."

"Surely poor Jimmy's been drowned by that Tirrell," Bjorn spoke.

"No," Robert shook his head and gently touched his bandaged wound. "Tirrell would just kill him right then if that was his intent."

"But that crazed merman took him deep into the water!" Johann pointed out.

The merman shook his head again. "You forget the powers my kind has, even without having sea witch for a mother. As long as they are touching, James will breathe underwater like air."

"By Herne!" Bjorn exclaimed. "But how do you find where they went?"

"Sea is too dangerous for them to stay in. Seapeople have vendetta against them, so they would need somewhere in land to hide out. Must go ask around rural places," Robert responded, and turned to go back to his lover's house.

"You're not going alone, mate!" declared Bjorn. "You're gonna need help."

Robert turned to them. "You...you help me? I not even your own kind."

"Well, you're my friend," replied the warrior. "And James is my friend, too. Right, Jonesy?"

Johann wasn't quite so enthusiastic, but he nodded his head in the affirmative.

Robert, naked but for his satchel and jewelry, hugged both men (being careful of his injury) then began walking in the direction of the fisherman's house. Both humans got an eyeful of his long, lean, golden frame before they began to follow. Golden hair spilled in curls down his back, and the long legs were a sight to behold as they propelled the merman along in great strides. And his ass, well…

"You know," mused the warrior as they walked. "If I wasn't a married man, I'd stick me cock between those arsecheeks."

"Bonzo!" Johann was scandalized.

Robert, leading the way, guffawed. 

"Wot? He's fucking pretty, all right?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! James kidnapped? Where has he been taken?
> 
> You know the routine, kudos, loves, comments welcome! Love you guys!


	10. In the Grotto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James finds himself fishnapped and taken to Tirrell's secret hideout, but he finds he's not the only prisoner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tirrell doesn't want James dead, so what does he want?

James screamed out when Tirrell took hold of him, beat against the solid, stone-hard form that wouldn't let loose of him. Apparently the merman had wrapped his beautiful tail around the fisherman and unbalanced him, sending the human to the ground where Tirrell could get hold of him. Johann desperately pulled at his fin, trying to stop him, then stabbed him with his blade, but in no time flat James felt seawater, heard the flop, flop, of Tirrell hauling them both to the water.

Then saltwater was in his mouth, he was choking, choking, that steel-strong arm around him like a vise, so this was it, this was how it ends, he thought…

Soft lips on his, softer than he expected from the merciless strength of this accursed merman, and something besides air flowed out from Tirrell's mouth. James hiccuped, spasmed, breathed in. Instead of watery death, he kept breathing. Shocked, he opened his eyes to find he was still underwater, but he could see, and he could breathe. Tirrell's face was close to his, that arm still around him, holding him close. They were moving again, propelled by the powerful tail of the sea creature. James looked back and saw the up and down movement of the fin, just like a whale or dolphin, as they cut through the waters with tremendous speed. 

Somehow, the merman had did some magic to make James be able to survive underwater, and his Druid sense told him he had to stay with Tirrell, or risk drowning. Where before he had tried to fight him, now he clung to the merman as he swam, taking him the human knew not where.

After some time, they ascended, James being yanked to the surface where he coughed up water, sputtered, then breathed in air. Tirrell did the same, then pulled the human after him, hoisted them both into a lamp lit cave that opened into the sea, it seemed. James sat up, heaving, waterlogged and hardly able to move his limbs. In the meantime, the merman peeled off his upper body armor, clothing and weapons, and laid them out to dry. 

"Welcome to our little grotto," the merman spoke with equal parts pride and bitterness.

After he oriented himself a bit, the human looked around the spacious cave, which was actually well-decorated and stocked. Tirrell lit a few more lamps, then crawled to James, who shrank away from him. "I'm not going to hurt you," he assured him, somewhat amused. "I could've just let you drown. What's your name."

"James."

Tirrell nodded and, somewhat snakelike, crawled farther in, away from the water. "Come sit by me, James, and get warm," he boomed in that warm, rolling voice.

"I don't think so."

"Suit yourself. I'll build a fire whenever I get me legs working. It's harder for me, seeing as how I'm a half-breed."

"The change is harder? It seemed a bit painful, even for Robert." James was genuinely curious.

"Robert, that's what you call him, eh?" Tirrell chuckled. "But yes, I often speed things up with magic, though it drains me a lot. Your friend, the little chap, stuck me good," he said as he eyed the gash in his lovely bronze-hued fin. "So I'll wait till I'm dry and strong enough. Ohh, you're not going anywhere, my dear fisherman. You'll lose yourself in the passages that lead out of here to the aboveground."

Something disturbed the water, and Lilyana pulled herself out, gasping and moaning. A harpoon, part of the shaft broken, jutted up from her back. 

"Mother!" The merman gasped and flopped himself to her. He helped her drag herself to dry land. "How-?"

"The big, bearded one did it. Got me with my own weapon," she hissed.

"By the Deep, I'll have to cut it out." He glanced up at the human who sat shivering, and in a few ungainly springs he was upon him. "Your mates did this! My last living family, since my uncles have died! I should smash your puny head in! Dash your brains on these rocks!"

"No!" shouted the sea witch. "We need him. Alive. Now come get this thing out of me."

As the merman administered to his mother, James heard movement on the other side of the cave, and sobbing of what sounded like a child. He got to his feet and made his way around the tables, shelves, and whatnot until he found the source of the sounds.

A four year old little blonde girl, chained to the wall by her neck, looked up at him with gold-brown eyes. "Are you hurt?" he asked her gently.

She shook her head no, her shoulder length yellow curls bouncing. 

"It's all right. I won't harm you. I am James Fisher. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes," she sniffed. "Scary fish people always yell, scare me."

"I'm gonna try to get us out of here, all right?" He knelt within reach of her leash, and desperately missing human contact, she wrapped her thin arms around his neck. When she pulled away, she smiled, and a row of white, pointy teeth greeted him. "Are you one of the merfolk?" 

She shook her head, clearly confused. "My mama isn't fish people. She's a regular person with legs all the time."

Suspicion dawning, he then asked what her mother's name was.

"My mum is Marra. Marra of the Cliffs."

He held the little girl, his mind racing. This was Robert's child, being held just as he's being held, ostensibly to get at Robert. After a few minutes he looked up to see Lilyana standing over them, a pot in her hand and blood smeared on her. "This ought to clear up any questions you have," she announced, then dumped the seawater in the pot on the little girl, who squealed and shuddered, then flopped against the human. He looked down to see her legs replaced with a cute, shiny, metallic blue tail, like another merman he knew. 

Robert's child. Chained like some animal in a grotto. Despite the pangs of jealousy, he knew he needed to get the poor girl out of here and back to her mother, or at least safe with her father. 

Fathers? 

He suddenly felt protective of the little wretch, the simple smock she was wearing now sopping wet and her howls of horror and confusion of being one of the nasty fish people she so feared. "It's all right, darling. It's fine, really," he tried to soothe her, stroked the fine blonde curls.

"What did the witch do to me?" she sobbed. "I don't wanna be a fish people, they are mean!"

"Oh honey, they're not all mean. I know one that is very nice."

She pulled away to search his face. "You do?"

"Yes, and he would be so very good to you."

"Why don't he come get me away from these scary ones?"

"Because he didn't know about you, sweetheart. What's your name?"

"Kira," she hiccuped.

"Kira, he's your father. Your real father. It's why seawater makes you change like this."

"Listen to the fisherman," Lilyana sneered. "You think I want a bastard waif like you sporting the glorious fins of my kind? Hardly!"

When she turned away, James saw the bandage over the wound Bonzo had given, and how carefully she walked. 

Topless, as it was easier for her to move in the water and back and forth to land, she sat heavily in a chair and grunted in pain.

This gave James hope. Both of these vile merpeople could be hurt. They were magical and had unbelievable powers, but they could bleed. They could be killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robert fish babies for the win! 
> 
> Comments, loves, donuts always welcome!


	11. Daughter of the Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The friends pick up another companion, and we find out more about Robert's past. 
> 
> Just how important Kira is to the Seafolk?
> 
> Merpeople are not to be trifled with.
> 
> Also thanks to Marauderofworlds for some good ideas and suggestions!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> King of the Merfolk!

Nobody at any of the towns and villages had seen James or anyone matching his description, but there were whisperings of strange folk here and there with bright eyes and stern bearing, coming and going. None knew where they lived or came from, but Robert felt they were getting closer.

At one particular inn, Johann, who was good at talking people up, caught wind of a strange man and woman heading west, and was informing his companions when Robert noticed a cloaked figure watching them. "You know anyone who shrouds themselves so?" he asked. Bjorn and Johann shook their heads no. The merman was at the bar when the hooded figure sauntered up beside him, the face nearly all obscured, the dimensions of their form unable to be discerned. "You seem to be searching for something. Or someone," the person ventured.

"Could be," he answered cautiously but with his normal cheer. 

"I, too, am in search. Perhaps we could aid one another, R."

"Who are you?" Robert questioned. He felt a prickling at his senses.

"Someone you left! Left to struggle alone!" came the reply, and they pulled down the hood to reveal a woman with blonde hair and flashing dark brown eyes.

"Marra?" He stared in disbelief. How had she shielded her presence from him?

His companions were at his side in a heartbeat, flanking the pair at the bar. "Here now," rumbled the warrior. "What business you got with Robert?"

"Just the business of informing him about the woman he left with child is now seeking their daughter, who's been taken by one of his own kind."

Bjorn and Johann received an armful of merman as his legs buckled and eyes fluttered when he lost consciousness. Robert awoke in a little bed in one of the rooms at the inn, with three faces bent over him. "That's odd," Marra was speaking. "Merpeople always seemed to have stronger constitutions than that."

"With his injury and all the stress and constantly being on the move, it could've weakened him," suggested Johann.

Robert sat up, rubbed his temples, and sighed. "I'm not weak. Just shocked." He glanced up at the woman. "Tell me."

She let them all know that not long after her husband Geoff had drove Robert away, she discovered she was pregnant. He was pleased during the pregnancy and after the birth, as she had gone years without being able to conceive, until the child grew strangely sharp little teeth, to go with the unusually wise, glowing yellow-brown eyes. "He denounced me and put us both away," she sighed sadly, and seated herself in one of the wooden chairs in the room. "Word got around the village that I had birthed a fey child, a daughter of a cursed sea creature, and I could find no aid there. So I left."

"Oh, Marra, that's terrible," cried Robert in distress. His friends nodded their heads in agreement.

"What did you do?" Bjorn prompted her. He was captivated by her tale.

"I went looking for the Man of the Sea who gave me Kira, hoping to at least find the kindness I remembered of him, when he sang to me and made love to me so innocently and freely."

"Dear, sweet girl," Robert spoke, rose from the bed, and knelt before her. "I so sorry for all you went through." He took her slender hands in his large, powerful ones.

"But?" She smiled at him sadly.

"But what?"

"I see love written on your heart and in your shining eyes."

"Tell her about James," burst out Bjorn, who couldn't help himself, being so wrapped up in what he was hearing.

"Bonz!" The merchant elbowed him in the side.

"Hey now, this is classic Love Triangle like what the bards and poets go on about!" He exclaimed.

"You found someone?" She looked from Robert's friends back to him.

"Yes. James the fisherman," the merman responded, the affection evident in his tone. "He is loving and smart and so beautiful and plays harp."

"So merpeople do love, after all."

"Of course we do!" He snapped. "Now tell me what happened to my daughter!"

"This isn't a Love Triangle, either," Johann hissed at Bjorn under his breath.

"How you mean?" Bjorn hissed back. "It's a three way love..uh..conundrum!"

"But it's not! One of the trio has to love the other two at least nearly equally, or the Romantic Tension isn't as satisfying!" Jonesy countered like he was speaking to an imbecile. "He doesn't love her nor she him!"

"Look at how he's holding her hands, Jonesy boy, there's something there, right-right?" Bjorn pointed out.

"The two of them act like a married couple," giggled Marra.

"WE DO NOT!" They shouted together.

"Blokes, if you would be so kind?" Robert huffed, his voice rising, which was unusual for the normally chipper siren

Both apologised and then fell silent.

It turns out Marra is good at healing and knowledgeable of herbs, so her and her daughter moved from place to place, administering to the wounded and ill. Some folks were friendly, some distrustful and outright hostile, many were kind, but she never really felt at home anywhere--and she was often asked uncomfortable questions about her strange daughter. Mother and child had passed through a particularly inhospitable town and she was feeling down, when she was approached by an attractive, middle aged woman with scarlet hair.

This lady promised room and board long enough for Marra to rest up in exchange for housework and her healing skills, so she agreed eagerly. Kira was afraid, trying in her limited four year old way to tell her mother the woman wasn't human, didn't have good intentions, was frightening. 

"I didn't listen," the woman sobbed, head down. "We had been through so much, I just put it down to her being a scared little girl. She's of the merfolk; she's made of magic. She knows things, but I trusted that witch! And she took her, took my little girl!"

"Lilyana," spat Robert. "Her and her twisted son took James too."

"She has them both? Why?" Marra wondered.

Robert stood, paced the chamber a few times, halted. "My mother was leader of our clan, but she was also leader of group of clans," he tried explaining. 

"Like a confederation, or a country?" Johann prompted.

"Something like that. She is of the Ruling Line of our clan groups. I was last, other than my cousin who ruled in my stead now. My daughter is of long line of rulers."

"You mean to tell me you're a bloody king of the merpeople?" Bellowed Bjorn.

"I guess that closest concept? But I not ruling, at least right now. I wanted lay low, not endanger anyone of the Seafolk. I know Lilyana and her family hates me, would come after me. My cousin Marnett, she old, has no heir either. If Tirrell and his mother have Kira, they could control all of the Northern Oceans. And not just that. The lands, too. Kira human, too."

Everyone stared at the merman in awe and horror.

"An' here I thought it was petty revenge," Bjorn said at last.

"That is part of it. They want to hurt me and get what they wanted at same time."

"How can we..how can we get our loved ones back?" Whispered Marra.

"We find their hiding place. Then I kill them both. I will drink their blood. Break their bones and give them to Lirra to punish. My teeth longs for their flesh."

It hit the other three in the room that Robert was indeed not human, and not born of any human culture. 

Despite his open, sunny nature and giving heart, a siren was merciless when crossed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that was interesting bits of information! Wow!
> 
> Kudos, loves, comments welcome!


	12. The Cavern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James uses his magic and tries finding his way out of the merpeople cave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Desperate to get himself and Robert's daughter away from the sea witch's clutches, James does something stupid.

"Are you cold? You're still damp."

"No, Mister Fisher." Kira snuggled into him nonetheless, as he was sitting with his back against the cave wall.

"Cold don't affect us the way it does your kind," Tirrell called to them from where he still lay. "Mother has a fire built over here if you're chilly."

"Call me James, sweetheart," the young man said softly to the girl, and looked into her face. "I'm going to get warm, will you be all right?"

She nodded and scooted over, flapping her fin sadly as James made his way to the blazing firepit. He spread out his vest and shirt before it to dry, and then seated himself next to Tirrell. "It'd go faster if you spread your trousers out to dry," remarked the merman.

As his bottom half still felt clammy, he stripped off his soggy breeches, leaving him only in his linen drawers. Tirrell snickered at the human still refusing to get completely bare in front of him, but he rubbed his drying tail and grunted. "What do you want with me?" The young man asked.

"What better way to draw Robert out than with those he cares about?"

"Why didn't you just kill me?"

The merman laughed, the firelight creating shadows on his sharp-planed face. "I don't wanna kill you. I rather like you, Druid. Oh, you're not trained, but I can tell. My, the power coming off you, James. It's intoxicating. Ah!" He winced, and the transformation finally happened. He rubbed his legs, again wincing at the dagger wound that was now in his muscular thigh but was healing. "That's better." He got wearily to his feet, and walked over to one of the many tables piled with objects to grab some food. James averted his eyes at the compact yet well-muscled frame that passed by him, but couldn't help but observe the broad back and shapely ass.

"Here we go, fisherman," Tirrell said smarmily when he returned with a plate of leftovers from a recent meal. Crusty bread, a hunk of cheese, what looked to be perhaps cooked venison, with a cup of watered-down wine. "Can't have you starving to death. You are rather thin."

"What about Kira?"

"Mum's giving her something to eat as well, never fear."

Indeed she had, and stopped to stare at James as he ate. She was well-built like her son, with powerful-looking arms and legs, large breasts, with fine features if you could discount the malicious expression that stayed on her face most of the time. "Think Roh wants to marry this skinny peasant?" She inquired of her son, who was chewing on a raw fish with gusto. 

"Possibly. He's kinda pretty though," Tirrell mused.

"He's not even worth eating. Would barely make a mouthful," Lilyana scoffed, and went to her chair.

James stopped eating the meat, and just finished his bread. He was now a bit apprehensive as to what the meat actually was. 

After some time his clothes dried and he dressed, glad that the merman had saw fit to wrap himself in a Hibernian style kilt. James went back to check on the child to find her rubbing her fin. "Oww," she wailed.

"Is it hurting you?"

"Uh huh," she sniffed, and he watched in fascination while her tail peeled off and revealed legs underneath. "My legs are back. Don't let fish lady do that to me again."

"Kira...that will happen if you get seawater on you, every time. It wasn't the sea witch."

"You say my father is fish people," she said. "Wish he would come save me."

"I have a feeling he will. But I will try, too."

"I like you, Mr. James. Sit with me?"

"Of course, sweetie."

A couple of days later, Lilyana left to do whatever it is a sea witch like her does, and left Tirrell to watch the captives. James decided to play friendly and struck up a conversation with the merman.

"Mother wants to study her," Tirrell indicated Kira. "Her reactions, blood, and so on, and see if it's like mine. Half-breeds are not that common, you see, and I've found that I may be weaker in some things than a full blooded sea person, but I can spend much longer before having to return to the Ocean."

"That's interesting," James said, wondering how he could go exploring the tunnels, perhaps map out all the dead ends so he and Kira could escape. He began exerting his magic, thinking over and over 'Sleep' at the merman.

Tirrell blinked his eyes slowly, shook his head, baffled at his sudden tiredness. He sat down on a bench and looked up at James blearily. "Just sit a while, Tirrell. There you go."

"I dunno why I'm so tired," the merman yawned, while James chipped away at him.

Soon he was asleep and James had crept out of one of the exits with a filched oil lamp. His eyes adjusted to the watery light the lamp gave off, and he marked the turning and twisting of the passageway with a piece of charcoal to show where he'd been. He went some distance toward the surface, he was sure, but all he found were dead ends. Damn it all!

He turned back, determined to check any turns he may have overlooked, when he did come upon a tunnel he hadn't explored. Undaunted, he pushed quickly on, and it wasn't long until he heard voices. Someone else was in this cavern as well! Maybe he could get some help! He picked up his pace, rounded a turn and ran smack into a pack of kobolds who were expanding their living quarters. Needless to say, they weren't happy about the intrusion by an Abovegrounder and the three foot tall, humanoid, bluish-skinned creatures swarmed him.

He beat and flailed and kicked at the annoyed kobolds, turned, and dashed back down the passage with two clinging to him and the rest hot on his heels. He cried out when one sank his little teeth into his upper arm, but kept running. At another flash of pain James dropped the lamp, which went out. His foot connected with the kobold on his leg he'd shaken off, and the creature lay still. The fisher grabbed at the jeering, chattering thing on his shoulder but couldn't dislodge him, and somehow his hand went into the little guy's mouth, which chomped down on his finger.

"James! Where are you?" Was the frantic voice of Tirrell.

"Over--ow! Over here!"

In a moment, the merman reached him, and took hold of the squealing cave dweller. He smashed it against the rocks, then James felt the merman's hands on him. "James, you bloody fool! I told you not to try it!" A wave of kobolds swept over them, but Tirrell boomed something in the Druid tongue, a spell of some sort, which made them retreat.

The fisher, blind in the complete darkness, clung to the sturdy frame of Tirrell, gasping. Then he felt lips on his, fierce and needy, tasting him. Overwhelmed by pain from his injuries and pleasure from the kiss, he froze, but let Tirrell continue. "James. Are you hurt? James?" The merman asked once he broke the kiss. At the silence, Tirrell swung him into his arms and made his way back to the grotto. After many lefts and rights they emerged in the chamber he and his mother lived. 

Under the many lights, the merman checked over James, finding the shoulder bite and the mangled finger. "For fuck's sake," Tirrell sputtered as he pulled the human's shirt down to put salve on the injury. "I never took you for an idiot. Or suicidal."

"You shouldn't have taken me at all," James hissed at last. "Or that little girl."

The merman sighed, his large green-gold eyes exasperated and sad. "I know. Oh, don't look at me like that. It was this ploy or destroy Robert's whole clan and anyone that knew about him or them. Yes, Jim. Everyone. Dead. I'm what's standing between my mother's unending wrath and major destruction."

"What a saviour," James snorted, and batted at Tirrell with his good hand.

"I know I'm terrible. You've no idea the things I've done. Give. Me. Your. Hand. James. I can use Seafolk remedy and it'll be good as new."

"No."

"You wanna play your precious harp again? Hm?" 

James sighed and gave up his hand. "Why would you even care?" the young man muttered.

"Because if things were different, I'd mate you."

James stared at the merman. "You're loony."

"I am? There has to be something inside you before a siren's love magic will work. And it worked on you. I felt it when we kissed."

"Perhaps. But it's not what I feel for Robert. He'll kill you. He'll kill you both."

"He will try." Tirrell smiled at James as he bandaged the man's damaged finger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot thickens...comments and loved welcome!


	13. Along the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert and his companions are stopped by some angry forest-dwellers and they gain a new member in the party.
> 
> It seems James really does have Robert's heart...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wood elves! Come on, it's me, you KNOW there's gonna be elves.

"Lads, did anyone consider this so-called shortcut leads through elf country?" Complained Johann.

The travelers were standing nervously in the forest amid the middle of a group of Wood-elves with bows notched and pointed at them.

"Elves am real?" Robert gulped comically, considering he himself was a magical creature.

"Course they're real!" scoffed Bjorn while he eyeballed a particularly tall and hostile elf giving him a stern look. "Says the bloke that turns into a fish." At Robert's scowl he amended "Dolphin sea-animal. Thing."

Two Fae, a male and female, appeared and with a wave of the he-elf's hand the others stood aside and let them approach. The she-elf circled around the group of companions, paying particular attention to Marra. All the faeries were dressed in shades of green, grey and brown, but the two leaders, which is what they seemed to be, sported gold jewelry and wore crowns of flowers in their dark brown hair.

"A Merrh, two humans, and a mixed-blood," remarked the female elf. "Interesting. I am Sola, and this is my brother Sirion, and you seem to have lost your way."

"Wait wait, a mixed-blood what? And who?" wondered Jonesy.

"This one," Sirion nodded at Marra, who glanced down in embarrassment. "She has elven blood." 

Even trying to disappear into herself and clad in worn tunic and trousers, she did look rather impressive--thick blonde hair, warm brown eyes, sharp-planed, youthful face. 

"That's how you could hide your presence from me," Robert inferred.

"I would very much like to know what such a wild-looking, mixed company is doing in our woods," Sola went on. "You may be in a hurry, but I am not. Elves can be quite patient." 

Robert sighed and looked rather put out.

The next day finds the group now on horseback, and with one more member. A self-satisfied Sola rode among them, with Bjorn scowling at her back. "You should fix your face, Master Bearkiller," she tossed over her shoulder as their horses clopped along at a walk.

"Fix your arse, pointy-ears," he groused. "First they point bows and arrows at us, then these woodland imps wanna send their princess along with us. Don't trust us to rid you of mermaid outlaws and ogres, seemingly."

"We do not," Sola agreed. "But we like you. You told us the truth."

"Seapeople word is their bond," Robert assured. 

"So I hear," the dark-eyed she-elf went on. "So how does that work, a half human, half merpeople, Elf mixed child?"

"My mother's mother was a Sea-elf," Marra answered. "My family kept it hidden. Kira is pure magic. She is truly special, we must get her back, I'll do anything to get her back."

"We get our loved ones back," the merman said firmly. "Tirrell and his evil mother will be punished."

Once the sibling leaders of the Wood-elves heard the travelers' tale, the pair in turn explained their problems with Lilyana, who according to the Elves had a small band of merfolk outlaws and a loose alliance with a pod of Ogres that had been giving the Fae trouble anytime they tried to leave the Dorn Forest, which is why they had been so jumpy and suspicious of the travelers. Sola also mentioned the Wood-elves had an idea where the mother-son diabolic duo was hiding out, and she was happy to lead them there, plus she wanted to be able to verify the trouble had been taken care of.

As they rode, Johann thought it odd that the sister would accompany them, and not the brother, when Sola turned her black eyes to him as they rode side by side. "I am the better warrior, and he the better leader, so it makes sense. Ah, but I hear in most of your settlements mortals don't allow their women to do anything but sit and tend the hearth and the babies. How dull and ineffective. Merfolk are typically ruled by their women, are they not?" she directed that at the blond merman, who still wasn't comfortable on his mount.

"Aye, unless there be no suitable female, or a more suitable male be better," was his answer. "My mother ruled, and her mother before her, but there were no other women in the direct line. Until Kira."

That night when they made camp, Bjorn and Johann were arguing over if full-blooded Elves and Merfolk could produce offspring and what they would be like, when an exasperated Sola informed them that to her knowledge, a Fae or or half-elf wouldn't produce children with a Merrh, and that humans and Elves often have trouble having children together.

Meanwhile Robert plopped down on the ground beside Marra, who was hugging her knees to her chest. "I wanted to say I'm sorry you had to struggle alone for so long," he began. "I probably should have tried to check on you, but I afraid. Not afraid that he would kill me, but that I would kill him and leave you with no mate."

The woman looked at him, blinked her brown eyes. "I know now. I was so angry at you for a while, but you didn't know, how could you have known? I did miss you, though," she smiled, her face lighting up with its warmth. 

Robert smiled back, his sharp teeth bright in the fire light. "You first person to not run from me. I curious, wanted to know about landpeople. You show me many things. And you give me a daughter."

Marra leaned her head on his shoulder, cuddled up to him, yet he sat rigidly straight. "We could, you know, for old time's sake. It would help with the stress and loneliness…" she leaned in and kissed his cheek, nuzzled his throat.

He felt the stirrings within him, the familiar reaction when she was near, but not the passion and love he felt for James. "Marra, no," he said as gently as he could. "That time is over, and won't be ever again. My heart is given to someone."

The woman sighed. "I know. This James must be special to cage the heart of a merman."

"He is. Oh, Marra, don't do the eye thing."

"Crying?" she smiled through her tears. "Do merfolk not cry?"

He shook his golden head. "Why are you crying?"

"Feeling sorry for myself. Wondering if I'll find someone like you did."

"You will! You beautiful, and strong, and talented. You have elf blood, so you will live a long, long time and stay beautiful and strong! And you mother of the Ruling Heir of Seapeople. A man be lucky to have you."

Marra laughed and wiped her face. "To be a merciless hunter of the depths, you can be so childlike and innocent and eager to please."

"See, wot I tell you? Love Triangle!" crowed Bjorn. It seems the little exchange had finally been noticed by their companions.

"It isn't, because they don't love each other!" contested the smaller, sandy-haired man.

"You both bicker like a married couple," observed the elf.

"WE DO NOT!" They both shouted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts, loves, comments, suggestions welcome!
> 
> Could there be something growing between Johann and Bjorn? Hmm.


	14. Pa-POW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter but funny. 
> 
> James has had enough of the sea witch and crew lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mer-outlaws get a little taste of their own medicine.

That first morning he woke up with arms around Robert, both naked and satisfied, not a care in the world, was the best. Nothing but exploring their bodies and passions, safe in one another's arms, after a bout of vigorous sex. That first morning after the merman stayed with him would be with him forever. Both men laid on their right side, and the fisher snuggled against his lover's broad back.

James opened his eyes to find he was still in the cave. Kira had rolled away from him--it was true after all that cold and damp didn't affect her, just like her father. He threw aside the animal hide he was using to keep warm at night, stood and stretched. Whatever Tirrell did to his hand worked, as the lacerated and crushed finger had completely healed, along with his captors' wounds. He heard voices in the middle of the area where Lilyana and Tirrell normally stayed, but there was a third voice he didn't recognize. He peered around one of the shelves to observe mother and son talking with a third person, a young man with a gravelly voice. 

"You sent WHO after them?" Spat Tirrell. 

"The Ogres," the stranger answered. "They'll ambush them on the Bridge before they reach here."

"Vannin, you fool, I wanted to witness it if I couldn't do it myself!" screeched the sea witch. "And those trolls are too dim to be trusted to do it right!"

"Ogres," the young man corrected. "I figured you'd be happy, you want rid of Robert and his mates, right?"

"Yes, but--"

"Auntie, is that the lander you were talking bout?" Vannin looked past his relatives to where James was eavesdropping.

"That's him," Tirrell affirmed, then smiled his sexy smile. "Come on down then and meet me cousin."

"Oh Tamessa, there's more of you," the druid griped but made his way to them through the maze of shelves, tables and objects.

"Don't sound so disappointed," the auburn-haired merman chuckled. "James, this is my cousin Vannin, who we thought was dead."

"I may kill the fool yet," groused Lilyana.

At closer inspection, the cousin appeared barely out of adolescence, and was shorter and thinner than the muscular Tirrell. He had large hazel eyes like Tirrell, but his were heavy-lidded. His hair was long, straight and dark brown, his lips full and sensuous. He had such a lovely face, if one discounted the evil gleam in those eyes. Were all sirens pure sex, James wondered?

"Is the half-breed still alive?" Vannin asked.

"Yes, we still have her," Lilyana answered. "Here," she handed a plate of food to James. "Since you like her so much, you can feed the little wretch."

"She isn't going anywhere," James managed to say evenly, having swallowed his outrage at the girl's treatment. "Why keep her chained? She needs to stretch her legs."

"Last time we let her loose she bit me and destroyed half the loot in here," the smaller merman explained. "So I threw her across the room. She has Seafolk toughness, I'll give her that."

"Aw, he's outraged on the ragamuffin's account," taunted the mermaid. "That's not a little girl, fisherman. She's half siren, with many of our abilities, and a princess, sole female of the royal line. Look at his face!" she continued to torment him. "Did you think Robert loved you? That you would be together? He'll leave you just like he left that mongrel's human mother. She at least gave him an heir. What do you think you can give him? Hmm?"

James shook with rage and nearly pitched the plate at Lilyana's face, but knew Kira needed to eat to keep her strength up. His anger focused on Lilyana and Vannin, who had thrown the daughter of the man he loved against a cave wall, and uttered something he'd secretly read in one of the many books of magic that had been stashed there. The pair was knocked back a good twenty feet by an unseen force, and left laying like ragdolls while Tirrell blinked stupidly in surprise. "Suck on that, assholes," he snorted, and with that, took the food to Kira.

Tirrell stared after the young druid as Vannin and Lilyana picked themselves up, spluttering. The red haired merman broke out in a grin. "Oh, you," he muttered to himself. "You saucy fucker. I love it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tirrell seems to be developing a crush lol.
> 
> Love you guys! More will be coming soon hopefully. Kudos, love, comments welcome.


	15. Obligatory Action Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a trap is sprung and Robert goes full cetacean ninja.
> 
> WARNING: violence and bloodletting and mermaid acrobatics ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's kill some Ogres, shall we? Also, cliffhanger.
> 
> I'M SAWRRY

"We've crossed over into Gillen," Johann informed them as they rode. "We'll be coming up on the Bridge soon."

"Afterward I'll search for the entrance of the Merrh's hideaway," Sola added.

"Rob, mate, what's with your skin?" Bjorn wondered as he nudged his mount closer to the merman.

Everyone turned to look at him as he scratched his arm. He was wearing only a simple homespun tunic and trousers and still having trouble riding the horse. "It's been over a week since I've been in the Waters. I drying out. Makes me weak until I get back in."

"You can get in the river the Bridge is over," the financier suggested.

"No, that fresh water. I need seawater. That's only thing that works, that makes me change." Robert continued to scratch at his flaking, pale skin.

"What happens if you don't go back to the ocean?" queried Marra.

"I will die," he answered simply.

They all stared at him, worried.

"I'm thinking this secret hideout of that sea witch would empty into the sea, make it easy to come and go, and to not dry out," advised the elf. "If we get there soon, then Robert can revitalise himself."

Then they came to the large, sturdy bridge that spanned this section of the River Medway, and Robert stared in awe. "That is so large, I can't believe it. And whole carts and wagons cross it?"

"Whole armies have, so I hear," Bjorn stated.

When they reached the edge of the bridge, Sola refused to cross. "Something is wrong," she kept repeating. "We shouldn't cross."

"The current is too swift here to cross, and we'd have to backtrack or find some way to ford it," argued Marra, desperate to retrieve her daughter.

The pair went back and forth until Sola decided she would stay back until everyone else was safely across. The two human men shrugged their shoulders and urged their horses while Robert merely looked sick and weak as his steed followed theirs. Marra brought up the rear, casting the occasional glance behind her at the elf, who sat implacably astride her horse, watching them like a stone sentinel. Clop, clop, clop went the horses' hooves on the wooden slats of the Bridge.

At the halfway point, blurred movement in front and behind the party heralded large figures swinging themselves from up under the bridge. A dozen Ogres eight feet tall and more, before and behind blocked the companions from moving forward or retreating. From the shoulders of a few sprang three more regular sized human shapes, a woman and two men. Their bright eyes and fangs decried them as Seafolk, like Robert, but these wore their malice and greed on their faces like Lilyana. "Right on time," announced one of the mermen. "We'd been hanging there a good while waiting for you."

"We must be getting close," called Robert, who had parked up considerably at the danger. "For Lilyana to send her goons!"

Explosion of movement, then, as Marra and Robert faced their attackers, and Bonzo and Johann faced the ones in front, and blows rained down on the travelers. Marra had her spear, a family heirloom passed down from her Sea-elf grandmother, and she wielded it with speed and force, surprising Robert who fought beside her. Johann had crawled up the arm of a nasty brute and was hacking away with a hand-axe, which he found he was proficient at. (Sola outfitted Johann with twin hand-axes, Robert with sword and dagger and daggers for both Bjorn and Marra.)

The she-elf screamed a war-cry and came galloping across the bridge, knocked aside a merman and an Ogre with her horse, and leapt down among the fracas with her leaf-shaped short sword and went to work. She moved faster than the eye could even register at times, kicking herself off the rail of the bridge to send her into an unsuspecting giant, cutting through their thick, muscular bodies like butter. Then the elf paused a moment in front of an ogre lifting his big club to smash her, only to have his own brains dashed out by one of his fellows trying to strike Sola. 

"Get him, douse him!" screamed the mermaid at the slow-moving, massive humanoids. One of them uncapped a large animal skin, a typical one used to transport liquids, and flung its contents at Robert. Unfortunately, the wood-elf had ended up right in front of the merman, and was drenched by salt-water--when she smacked her lips she felt the sting of the ocean water.

The elf, who was now sopping wet and enraged, whipped out her bow, notched an arrow, and targeted the ogre who threw the water. Then it dawned on her what their attackers were trying to do; namely, make Robert transform and render him a sitting duck on land. "Marra, don't let them soak Robert!" she called to the woman. Marra, still astride her mount, stabbed at the waterskin of the giant closest to her, but the older-looking merman had one, and he emptied it on the blond merman.

Robert cried out as the change took him and the horse reared, leaving him on the ground with his pretty, shiny blue tail, and trousers in tatters. An ogre scooped him up, and Robert tore his drenched tunic off himself to free up his movement, but the ogre didn't consider that coming into contact with Waters of the Mother had essentially powered him up, and he still had sword in hand. Unused to fighting on land with that sort of weapon, he nonetheless squirmed out of the giant's grip, wrapped his muscular tail around the ogre's waist, and rose up like a sexy serpentine Adonis, changed his grip on the bladed weapon, and with all his strength drove it through the creature's body. It punched through the thick skin of the ogre, and when he fell back, Robert jerked the sword free and bounced himself into the legs of another of the human-shaped monsters.

The mouth of the stabbed Ogre went slack, his huge, sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight, especially the two lower tusks, the enormous, clawed hands ceased flexing. After Robert tripped the ogre he slammed into, he crawled up the body to put his blade through his eye, again with such force it went through skull to sink into the wooden slat of the Bridge. With great effort he yanked the blade free to glance around to see how his companions were faring.

Johann had blinded an ogre with axe chops and was clinging to the back of his neck, having dropped his hacking tool in the scuffle. Bjorn had chopped the hand off another and kicked him off the bridge, and a great roar and splash followed. Johann's horse somehow got pitched over the side of the bridge, and Robert's horse bolted across the direction they were going, but who knew if it would stop. Marra had felled the younger of their mermen attackers by putting her broad-headed spear through his neck, but an ogre had knocked her horse over with her still astride it, and she was left struggling, trapped beneath the injured and stunned beast.

Johann finally got a hold of his dagger and stabbed the ogre in the temple, sending him crashing to the ground. The merchant got himself to his feet, head spinning, to find that there were still six Ogres and two sirens, now tired and angry, surrounding them. 

Things did not look good for them.

Robert, being the ocean predator he was, refused to back down. He gathered his muscular tail under him and sprang at the brown-haired mermaid, shocking everyone there at how he moved. It was nearly elven-quick, and the mermaid dropped her sword at the impact. She sank her fangs into Robert's neck as his tail coiled around her legs as she fell backwards with him on top of her. He threw his sword-arm outwards, trying to get leverage, as he felt her teeth tearing at his throat, ripping, ripping. Finally, he thrust at angle toward her body. Even at the odd angle the blade went through her. She stiffened, her legs quivered, her mouth released Robert's neck. Her head fell back, and her last breaths gurgled in her throat.

Scarlet poured from Robert's neck from his horrific injury, and his companions stared in horror as he returned the favor by tearing out the mermaid's throat with his own fangs and gulped down her still-hot blood. He then swallowed chunks of her flesh and the gaping hole in his throat ceased bleeding and even knitted together somewhat. 

"By the Hunter's horns!" Swore Bjorn. "Remind me not to make him mad!"

Robert then flopped over, weakened from trauma and loss of blood. The wound didn't close all the way, and he was out of his element in his siren form on land. He lay there panting as he heard shouts from his friends and the bellows of the Ogres.

/Robert. Get up. Get up!/ a voice in his head shouted. 

/What? James, is that you?/

/Yes, love. You need to get up./

/I'm hurt, my dear one. Pretty badly./

/I know, Robert I can feel it. But you have to get up and tell the others to get clear./

/What..I don't understand./

/I'm getting ready to do something really stupid./

/James, you not trained! If you do too much, you could hurt yourself. You could die./

/If I don't do something now, YOU could die. Robert! GET UP!/

The merman pushed himself to a sitting position and shouted, "Everyone, get away from the Ogres! Something's about to happen!" Puzzled, his companions tried to do just that. Bjorn and Johann pulled Marra free of her downed horse while Sola shot arrows at their attackers.

This sapped Robert, and he slumped over, and all went black.

/I love you, James./

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn that's a Lotta drama for one chapter, huh? Never fear, there's more to come!

**Author's Note:**

> How do you guys feel about a merman Robert? 
> 
> More in the works, as my injured leg and Muse allows lol.
> 
> Thoughts, suggestions, comments, donuts welcome. Love you guys!


End file.
